Emery Brown Receives the Leonard and Betty Blount Scholarship

January 31, 2012

Georgia Southern University junior Emery Brown (pictured left with his girlfriend) is the 2011-2012 recipient of the Leonard and Betty Blount Scholarship. Currently majoring in management with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and small business while minoring in marketing, Brown was awarded this scholarship for having the highest GPA in this major as a rising junior.

Leonard and Betty Blount began the scholarship five years ago. After sitting down and speaking with the Dean of the College of Business Administration Ron Shiffler, the Blount’s decided they wanted to contribute.  “We recognize that students have different needs and scholarships are one of those needs,” said Leonard Blount. “Our purpose was to help students out financially through the school of business.”

Brown will receive $1,000 over the course of one year which he plans to use to help pay for housing.  He is originally from Dalton, Georgia, which is also referred to as the “Carpet Capitol of the World.” Brown’s father owned and operated his own carpet business for years while Brown was growing up. “Growing up outside of Dalton, my dad just started selling his own carpet,” Brown said. “I really have just grown up with the small business self-employed type family.”  

Brown made the decision to attend Georgia Southern as a junior in high school. However, he struggled to declare a major until his sophomore year in college.  “I actually first came in as an athletic training major, but I decided some of those classes just weren’t for me,” Brown said. There were a few other majors Brown experimented with until he finalized management. “I picked management because I knew I wanted to get a business degree of some type. Turns out, the more I was in COBA [College of Business Administration], the more it seemed to work out,” Brown said.  

Currently, Brown is working as an agent for 3 King’s Properties LLC owned by his father, Jim Brown, and his father’s partner, Jim Callahan. According to Emery Brown, the company works to buy distressed properties, improves them and then turns around and sells them.  “While at Georgia Southern, I work to look around the Bulloch county area to find different houses that could possibly work as prospects for the company,” Brown said.  

A Georgia Southern honors student, Brown has constantly been involved with community service during his college career. He volunteered with the Humane Society and now is dedicated to helping the Student Alliance for a Green Earth (SAGE) with trash cleanups.  Brown is currently looking for internships over the summer.  “I’d really like to do an internship with a more established company,” said Brown. “I feel like I know a lot about how a small business operates, but I’d really like to learn more about a larger corporation.”   In the next ten years, Brown hopes to have established his own business that is growing and prospering.

“For Emery, and every student before and after him who will receive this scholarship, I hope that they catch onto the spirit of entrepreneurship,” said Blount (pictured right with wife Betty and their first grandchild). “My hopes are that they will go out there and make the world a better place and make a mark in society.”